Emmy nominations have come and gone, and now we officially know who will be squaring off in September for “TV’s Biggest Night.”
The nominations overall were underwhelming and unsurprising. The White Lotus and Succession absolutely dominated the drama category while Ted Lasso, Abbott Elementary, Barry and The Bear essentially made up the entirety of the Comedy categories.
Some takeaways…
Snubs
Obviously the biggest, and most inexplicable, snub of the day was leaving out Harrison Ford’s excellent performance in (the otherwise heavily nominated) “Shrinking.”
“Harrison Ford” was immediately trending on Twitter as fans of the series rushed to express their discontent.
If you told me that the Apple TV series was going to get only get one nomination, I would’ve guessed it would be Ford without any hesitation. Regardless, it scored a handful of nominations including one for Outstanding Comedy Series and stars Jason Segel and Jessica Williams, but Ford was left out.
The other inexplicable disaster came in the nominations for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. Entirely missing were critic favorites like NatGeo’s A Small Light, Amazon’s Swarm and BBC’s “This is Going to Hurt”…but what was nominated? Disney +’s utterly unmemorable Obi-Wan Kenobi. Terrific.
I commented in my own blog that the Limited / Anthology Series were absolutely experiencing a reverse renaissance this year, but completely missing the boat on decent series to nominate one that is entirely unworthy was just silly.
Speaking of silly nonsense…
The nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series make sense only to the point where the obvious choices were awarded…after that it’s nonsense.
Picking Wednesday and Jury Duty (a series I also rightly suggested could potentially be low hanging fruit for the Emmys) over much more deserving series like Reservation Dogs (a series I and a lot of other critics thought had a decent shot) is pathetic.
Almost entirely absent from the nominations this year is perennial nominee “What We Do in the Shadows.” A far better series than Wednesday or Jury Duty, which showcased an absolute breakout year for Harvey Guillen fell out of favor when, in retrospect and compared to what was nominated instead of it, it probably shouldn’t have.
Wednesday was the clear head scratcher amongst critics. Although there was plenty of buzz around it being nominated, it never really got away from a modern upgrade of Tim Burton 80’s and 90’s lore. What it did do, much like Stranger Things and Cobra Kai (another entirely absent series despite dropping two seasons during the eligibility period) is attract young adult viewers by the dozens. But was it even the right “young adult” series to reward…especially with Reservation Dogs, RIGHT THERE.
One Twitter user even commented that if The Emmys were going to look to include Young Adult series, they clearly picked the wrong one…with Reservation Dogs or even the critically revered Netflix series Never Have I Ever being the better choice.
Snubs aside, what did the Emmys do right?
Well, first of all, I absolutely loved the nomination of
Keivonn Montreal Woodard for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He’s the youngest nominee ever and was an absolute shining light in a sea of brightness on an incredible season of television.
The love for The Bear wasn’t surprising…especially given its popularity currently, but I’ve repeatedly said that I’m rooting the most for its star Ayo Edebiri to win an Emmy as her dad is a friend of mine.
The Bear fared well overall, and I actually think Jeremey Allen White has leapfrogged Jason Sudiekis to be the favorite to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
I’ll also, strongly, be rooting for Better Call Saul to win its first Emmy ever in its last year of eligibility…but if I could pick only one…
Disney + heavily lobbied for its Rouge One spinoff “Andor,” and it was rewarded heavily with multiple acting awards and a nomination for Outstanding Drama Series. In doing so it ousted two-time nominee The Mandalorian…which didn’t entirely help itself by shelling out a mostly terrible third season in 2023
One weird takeaway (that I somehow missed earlier) was that the million-time consecutive winner Last Week Tonight was somehow shoved in the Variety Sketch category to compete against SNL (an also million-time straight winner). In what should be a non-contest, the John Oliver series should win easily
Missing from the sketch/variety series race, but smashed into the Outstanding Short Form Comedy Series is my favorite Netflix Series, ever, “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.”
That’s it for my immediate reactions. I think Succession and Ted Lasso will win the big awards of the night. Until this morning I thought the latter would be won by Abbott Elementary. I now actually would drop that to third behind The Bear.
The only series I can feasibly see contending for Outstanding Drama Series with Succession is The White Lotus. Very clearly voters worshipped both series…way more so than Better Call Saul, The Crown, or The Last of Us (which I was pleased to see so represented).
I’ll, obviously, be breaking down who will win and who should win over the next two months. Please smash the Subscribe button, follow along and tell your friends.
Tube Notes with Ryan Benharris 